Wireless communication technology continues to be incorporated in more electronic devices as consumer's appetites for connectivity by various means continue to grow. Wireless communication devices as varied as portable computers to wearable computing devices include wireless circuitry (also referred to as radios) for both wireless personal area network (WPAN) communication, e.g., Bluetooth®, and wireless local area network (WLAN) communication, e.g., Wi-Fi®. In addition to offering connectivity, wireless communication devices include power management capabilities to extend the battery life between charges. Existing power management capabilities in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 wireless communication protocol specifications, e.g., 802.11-2012, require explicit communication between a station (STA) and an access point (AP) when transitioning between different power management modes or states. Power management modes include an active mode, in which the STA is always in an awake state, and a power save mode, in which the STA can be in the awake state or in a doze state. The STA can indicate a change in its power management mode to an AP by transmitting a frame with a power management (PM) bit set to a particular value in a frame control field of the transmitted frame. Similarly, the STA can indicate a change in its power management state by transmitting various types of frames to the AP including “null” frames when the STA has no uplink data frames to send to the AP. Any change to the power management state of the STA is initiated by the STA and explicitly indicated to the AP by a frame exchange handshake, where at least one frame exchange is required for each transition between power management modes or power management states. By having to signal explicitly a power management mode or state transition, the STA must delay entering a more power efficient state, which consumes more power, and must send additional signaling messages, which increases network congestion. With implicit power management mode and state transitions, wireless communication devices, including a STA, can improve their power consumption efficiency and reduce their traffic loading on a WLAN on which the wireless communication device operates.